


WILD

by artificialmac



Series: Blue Neighborhood [1]
Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Awkward Flirting, F/F, Flirting, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Getting to Know Each Other, cis girl au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:48:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23724844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artificialmac/pseuds/artificialmac
Summary: Crystal can’t get her mind off her new neighbor.
Relationships: Crystal Methyd/Nicky Doll, Nicky Doll/Crystal Methyd
Series: Blue Neighborhood [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1708849
Comments: 11
Kudos: 47





	WILD

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there, this is the first of a series of oneshots based off of Troye Sivan’s Blue Neighborhood album. The basic premise is that all the season 12 girls live in one neighborhood but have very different lives. Each song off the album applies to one of them/a pair of them. And we get to see how each of their lives intertwine. Does that make any sense? Who knows.
> 
> All my love to Meggie for beta-ing. Hope you enjoy!

Crystal groaned loudly as she heard yet another crash from the house next door.

She heard a few curses and another loud banging noise before the cul-de-sac went blissfully silent. Crystal fist-pumped the air as now she could finally, finally get some sleep. _Who the hell moved into a new house at midnight?_

Unluckily enough, another noise started sounding below Crystal’s window. This noise was softer and didn’t immediately warrant a groan of distaste. No, it sounded an awful lot like singing. The voice was muffled, but Crystal became more and more sure the voice was singing as the notes travelled up a floor to her room.

The person sounded… rather good. Crystal hated to admit that their new neighbors, who had the bright idea of moving houses in the middle of the night, were doing anything well, but the fact persisted. 

The singing was rather good. And now Crystal was both awake and intrigued. So now, of course, Crystal had to get up to peer out the window and see who was doing the rather good singing. 

It was dark. Midnight. So she could barely make out the figure, but it looked to be a girl about her age, high school senior, maybe junior. She was carrying boxes from the back of the moving truck into the house. 

_Fuck it_ , Crystal thought She was already snooping; she might as well snoop more. She opened her window slowly, wincing as it creaked from disuse. She went slowly, drawing up the frame until the warm night air danced across her face.

She could hear the song more clearly now, still didn’t recognize it, but the singer was definitely a girl. It took Crystal a few more minutes to realize the song wasn’t in English. Her three years of French seemed to fail her in that moment, other than identifying that the song was in fact, French.

The girl looked to have blonde hair, or maybe that was just a trick of the faint garage light that illuminated her. Crystal leaned a bit closer to her window to get a better look, in the process she nearly knocked the screen out of the damn thing and cursed rather loudly.

There was a scuffling from under her window and Crystal ducked down so she couldn’t be seen.

“Hello?”

The voice was heavily accented.

“Is someone there?”

Crystal held her breath, not that it would help much, she was a whole story above her neighbor. Still, the intensity of the moment made her wary. 

The girl must have given up looking because she went right back to moving boxes, but her singing turned into light humming, and Crystal surprised herself by being sad at that fact.

The days passed, and Crystal saw neither head nor tail of their new neighbor. 

She brought it up on Wednesday, during lunch, or what was considered their lunch period. 

Freshman year, Crystal would always steal away into the art room to work on her unfinished projects at any given moment. This included lunch, breaks between classes, and sometimes even during her other classes. After about a year of her doing this, and her friends complaining about never seeing her, they finally decided it would be easier to hole up in the stuffy art room with her rather than brave the bustling cafeteria. 

Crystal nonchalantly mentioned the racket that occurred the other night while trying to seem invested in the unfinished painting in front of her. 

“Oh yeah, the new girl, what’s her name, Nicole? Nina?” Jackie shrugged. “Something with an N.”

Jackie seemed unbothered by the appearance of the newest member to their neighborhood, as she went right back to studying for their chemistry exam. Heidi shrugged too and continued looking over Jackie’s shoulder as she studied for their chemistry exam.

“I think she’s French,” Crystal threw out.

Jackie hummed noncommittally, absorbed in her studies. Crystal was just about to shrug it off when Aiden piped up from the table beside her. “You talkin about the new girl? The one that moved in at the asscrack of dawn?”

Crystal nodded. 

“Her name is Nicolette, goes by Nicky. Moved from Marseilles, France. Only child. Seemingly lives with her single mother.”

Crystal and their present company looked up from what they were doing to stare wide-eyed at Aiden.

She just shrugged. “I know people.”

Crystal didn’t press further. She turned back to her unfinished painting and lamented that it wouldn’t paint itself. 

But at the same time, her mind was reeling.

 _Nicolette_. 

Crystal liked that name. It seemed… fitting in a way. 

She went through the rest of her day with little care for anything else, Nicolette on repeat in her head.

She didn’t know why she was so absorbed in this girl. She shockingly didn’t seem to mind either.

When Crystal got home, she finally shook her strange stupor. She let the dogs out, made herself a snack and went up to her room to start on the metric fuckton of homework she had to do.

She sat down, opened her textbook, and promptly closed it again. She did this twice more, before actually starting to read the words inside.

Her focus drifted after the first few lines, along with her eyes. and she soon found herself looking out her window, but not just aimlessly, looking directly into the eyes of the neighbor she had been obsessing over for most of the day.

Crystal startled herself when she realized what she was doing, and had the decency to blush. The girl, Nicolette, _Nicky_ she mentally corrected, smiled a bit at her clearly flustered state. Crystal felt her stomach flip.

This was the first time she actually got to see Nicky in the daylight, albeit through a crusty window screen, but goddamn, she was just as beautiful as her singing voice. If not more so. 

Nicky waved after a few awkward moments of the two staring at each other. Crystal waved back immediately and then mentally kicked herself for looking too eager. _She’s gonna think I’m a freak_. 

But Nicky didn’t close her window shade in horror, she didn’t look disgusted by the mere sight of Crystal. No. What she actually did was look around her room for a moment before holding up a finger. _Wait a second_ , she mouthed.

And Crystal found her mind supplying that she would wait much longer than that if Nicky asked her to. But she just nodded.

Nicky smiled and got up to search her room for something. 

She came back a moment later with a notebook and a pen. She scribbled something down before pressing the notebook to the window. 

_Hi I’m Nicky_

Crystal couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on her face. She pulled out one of her hundreds of sketchbooks and wrote her own message. 

_I’m Crystal_

Nicky smiled and wrote her response.

_Hi Crystal_

Crystal giggled to herself.

_Hi Nicky_

Nicky went to write something else down, but Crystal beat her to it.

_You could just open your window, you know?_

Nicky grinned, but jotted down something else. 

_I thought this was more romantic._

Crystal couldn’t stop herself from blushing. Nicky was joking. Surely. 

Crystal didn’t have time to process the possibility of Nicky not joking because the girl in question was now opening up her window. 

Crystal followed suit and tried to not look like a complete fool, evidently, the world was out to get her because the screen from her window fell lifelessly to the grass below her.

Nicky laughed.

And oh, they could hear each other now.

“I meant to do that,” Crystal tried to cover for herself. 

Nicky only laughed harder. “Sure, you did.”

And oh, Nicky was definitely French. Her accent smoothly tied up in her words. It made her impossibly more fascinating.

“Hello there, neighbor.”

“Hi.”

“How you doin’ with moving in?”

Nicky sighed, “Oh, you know, I’m drowning in cardboard boxes, and I want to die, but what else is new.”

Crystal nodded, “I feel that.”

Nicky smiled softly, but averted her eyes, “I’m sorry I have not introduced myself. I’m not the best at English.”

“You’re from France, yeah?”

“What gave it away, the accent, or the good looks?” Nicky winked.

“The flag hanging up behind you.” Crystal pointed to the very evident French flag on the far wall of Nicky’s bedroom.

“Oh.”

It was Crystal’s turn to laugh. 

And then abruptly stop laughing.

The sudden silence was awkward, and Crystal found herself tracing the lines of the fallen window screen on the grass.

Nicky also seemed uncomfortable by the sudden lack of sound. So uncomfortable in fact that she motioned back to her room, “Umm, I should… get back to-”

“Yeah! Yeah, me too.”

Nicky nodded. “Umm, see ya?”

“Yeah, I’ll see ya.”

Nicky smiled and went to close her window, but just before it could shut, Crystal called out, “Same time tomorrow?”

Nicky looked up at her and smiled.

“Sure.”

Crystal nodded and closed her own window as Nicky pulled her blind down. 

She found herself constantly looking over to see if Nicky’s blind went up. 

It didn’t.

Crystal couldn’t possibly concentrate now. Her mind replayed Nicky’s laugh on a loop in her head. 

Maybe that made her crazy. To be so infatuated with a girl after knowing her for less than ten minutes. 

Heidi certainly thought so.

“Girl, you sound clit-matized.”

Aiden looked up from her sculpture to look confusedly between Crystal and Heidi, “What the hell is that?”

“You know, like dickmatized, but she’s a girl? Clitmatized,” Heidi explained.

“That’s not a real thing,” Aiden said.

“Well now it is, hoe,” Heidi shot back.

“Guys!” Crystal exclaimed. “We were talking about me and my problems.”

Aiden rolled her eyes. “So what, you have a crush on her. You’re bein’ a little creepy. We’ve all been there.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Jackie chimed in. 

“I think it’s creepy,” Heidi called.

“I think you should talk to the bitch more,” Aiden said. 

“I think I’ll just die in a hole,” Crystal lamented, throwing her head down on her open homework.

Crystal decided that dying in a hole would be counterproductive to figuring out why she was so infatuated with Nicky. Hence, she settled for trying to finish the homework she had neglected from the previous night.

The rest of the day passed slowly. Maybe it was because she had something to look forward to. Maybe it was just that high school was boring as hell.

Crystal didn’t know.

What she did know was that as soon as she watched Heidi, Jackie, and Aiden close their front doors, she sprinted upstairs to her room.

She found Nicky had beat her to it and was staring dreamily out her own window. So she had most probably seen Crystal’s frantic running.

_God, just kill me now._

Crystal put on a brave face and marched over to her window, opening it with greater care this time around so as not to dislodge the screen.

“Hey there neighbor.”

“Hey there.”

“How was your day?”

“Ugh, god, it felt like it would never end! I swear high school is such a scam.”

Nicky chuckled. “Well, what do you want to do after?”

“Realistically or in my fantasy?”

“Oh fantasy, definitely.” Nicky smiled.

Crystal smiled and felt a bit of the tension in her mind dissipate, “Well, in my French vanilla fantasy, I get into this really prestigious art school, like the Juilliard of art schools. And on my first day of class, I create this masterpiece. Better than Van Gogh.”

“Naturally,” Nicky added.

Crystal giggled and continued on, allowing herself to really ham up the details. Nicky seemed to smile more when she did. “They see my potential, and they fast track me to the big leagues. The MET, the Smithsonian. Boom. One cold day in February, that masterpiece from before is hung up. I am undercover in the crowd, observing everyone’s reactions. After a while, everyone leaves, except for one guy. He is staring at my painting with an unreadable expression. I approach him. He is crying. He is moved to tears by my masterpiece.”

“He wants to buy it?”

“Better. He’s a washed-up artist, hasn’t created in years after his wife died tragically.”

“How is that better?”

“I’m getting there!” Nicky held up her hands in surrender, and chuckled lightly. “So he’s a washed-up artist, and he loves my painting and offers to mentor me. I decline.”

“Why would you-”

“I offer to help him get back into his art. We build a friendship even though he’s a cynical old man who doesn’t laugh at my jokes. But he starts creating again. He and I open up our own gallery in New York City. And people come from all over the world to get a look at our art. But the best part is, on the opening night of our gallery, I meet his daughter.”

Nicky rolled her eyes fondly, “Let me guess, you fall in lov-”

“We fall in love.”

Nicky laughed. So hard she snorted a bit and then laughed at herself for snorting. Crystal went giggling right along with her. 

“I like that world,” Nicky spoke softly. The fondness in her voice struck Crystal like a slap. 

“Me too.” She smiled.

It was at that moment that everything changed. Suddenly, the tension that hung between them was gone. It was like the universe decided they had suffered from their mutual awkwardness enough. Conversation flowed smoothly from the two windows, and before either of them could blink, the sun had set.

They didn’t seem to notice, talking long into the night about anything and everything under the stars.

Nicky talked about her childhood. Growing up in France and Morocco. She had so many stories from so many different places, Crystal worried she’d never hear them all.

Maybe that’s why they stayed up so late.

Maybe Crystal worried that when the sun rose, the spell would be broken, and Nicky would go back to just being the girl that lived next to her. And not this incredibly fascinating human that seemed to be equally as fascinated with her. 

Unfortunately, Crystal wasn’t superhuman, and after the third consecutive yawn, Nicky sentenced them both to some well-needed rest.

Crystal agreed, begrudgingly shutting her window and giving one last wave to her new friend.

They went on this way for the next week. Crystal rushing home to find Nicky waiting for her, window propped, a smile etched into the corners of her eyes.

Crystal swore she got more beautiful every day.

On one such afternoon, Crystal finally got the courage to ask Nicky about the night she moved in.

“Were you the one singing the other night?”

Nicky’s head shot up in surprise.“Oh, god, did I wake you up?”

“No! No!” Crystal lied. “You sounded really good,” Crystal said truthfully.

Nicky blushed at the compliment and ducked her head. “Now you are just winding me up.”

“No really!” Crystal insisted. “You sing beautifully.”

“I really don’t-”

“Wait hold up!” Crystal cut her off and made her way over to the far corner of her room. She picked up the worn down guitar and came back over to sit by the window.

“You play?”

“Not since I was ten, but it’s just like riding a bicycle, right?”

Crystal tried to play a chord and the screech from the instrument rang out like a gunshot.

“Yep, just like a bike,” Nicky teased.

Crystal fiddled around with the tuning until the noise emanating from the instrument sounded a bit more like music and a bit less like a feral animal.

She played softly, getting reacquainted with where to put her fingers and what the hell a strumming pattern was. Nicky just watched her with a soft smile and chimed in with praise and some teasing words until the afternoon sun had turned into moonlight.

They had gone so long without talking that when Crystal finally spoke, her voice cracked. She blushed, but Nicky only smiled warmly.

“Do you know Landslide?”

Nicky nodded.

“Okay, gimme a second.” Crystal grabbed her laptop and pulled up the chords, before beginning to strum lightly.

Nicky nodded along to the first few notes, humming lightly through the verse. When the chorus came, she finally started to sing. 

_Well, I've been afraid of changing_  
_'Cause I've built my life around you_

Crystal couldn’t help the smile on her face. Nicky still had her accent when she sang. The fact made Crystal’s chest feel fuller than it should have. 

_But time makes you bolder_  
_Even children get older_  
_And I'm getting' older, too_

Crystal cheekily tried to chime in for the last line.

_Said, I’m getting older too_

Nicky looked up at her pleased. “You can sing, you can play guitar, and you are an artist? Is there anything you can’t do?”

Crystal was very close to saying something stupid like ‘ _I can’t stop thinking about you._ ’

But luckily, a voice from Nicky’s house called out before she could make a fool of herself.

“NICKY!”

Nicky sighed and turned around to yell back, “Coming, Mom!”

She shot an apologetic look to Crystal who just motioned to say ‘ _Go ahead. I’ll be here._ ’

“See you tomorrow?” 

Crystal nodded. “See you tomorrow.”

But Crystal didn’t see Nicky tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the day after that. 

Her blinds remained shut tight for the next week.

“Maybe she hates you.”

“Aiden!” Jackie scolded.

“What, you were both thinking it.”

Jackie shook her head and turned to face Crystal. “She could just be going through stuff. She just moved, yeah?”

Crystal nodded.

“So she’s probably unpacking still, or getting ready to start a new school. Or literally any number of things other than her hating you.” Jackie shot a glare at Aiden who held her hands up in surrender.

“Or she died.”

“Heidi!”

“Just me thinkin’ it?” Heidi looked to Aiden who shook her head. “Just me, okay.”

Crystal groaned. She had probably scared Nicky off. Probably scared her off so much she never wanted to see Crystal again. Probably scared her so much she was moving back to France.

Probably scared her so much she was… waiting by Crystal’s locker after homeroom.

“Hey there, neighbor,” Nicky smiled. 

And oh god, Nicky up close was even more breathtaking. Her long blonde hair tied into the most perfect braid and her outfit was so trendy and cute and, Jesus Christ, she smelled good too.

“Sorry, I missed you the past couple of days. We went to stay with family and it was so short notice I didn’t have time to tell you.”

“You’re… oh.”

Crystal’s brain was still trying to process that Nicky was here. That she was real. And apparently going to their school. She looked to the locker Nicky was leaned up against and saw her name in cute cursive letters on the front.

“We’re… locker neighbors?”

“Yeah. I asked the principal to put me next to you.” Crystal must not have given the right response because Nicky’s face fell and she quickly started apologizing. “Oh god, I am so sorry I should have asked! I wasn’t even thinking. I don’t mean to cramp your style”

Crystal couldn’t help but laugh, “No! Nicky, Jesus, if anything you’d be helping my style.”

“What do you mean? I like your style.”

“Oh. I… Forget it.” Crystal shook her head to clear the blush from her cheeks.“You want a tour?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Crystal smiled in spite of herself and held out her arm. Nicky gave a chuckle and took it graciously. 

The two frolicked about the school, under the guise of a tour. They chatted and laughed and caught up with each other’s lives.

Crystal hadn’t realized how much she had missed this. This ease between them. The way their thoughts seemed to run together like ink. It was refreshing to have someone who’s brain worked like yours.

When the bell finally rang for lunch, Crystal steered Nicky away from the mass of teenagers heading for the cafeteria, and toward the art room.

The two entered to find Jackie and Aiden already in a heated discussion about which version of _A Star Is Born_ was better. Heidi was sitting next to Jackie just watching on in amusement.

The three of her friends did a double take when they noticed Crystal’s guest.

“Hey guys, this is our neighbor Nicky.”

“Our?” Nicky asked.

“Yeah. Heidi lives across the street from me, Jackie lives on the other side of Heidi, and Adien lives next to you.”

“Oh, well hello there neighbors.” Nicky smiled and waved.

Heidi’s eyes lit up in recognition.“Oh, is this the girl you been talkin our ear off about? The one you’re kinda in love with?” Jackie elbowed Heidi in the ribs.

Crystal’s whole body flushed crimson and she opened her mouth to respond, but Nicky beat her to it.

“Oh, so you’re in love with me?” Nicky asked teasingly.

“No! No. God, no,” Crystal lied unconvincingly. 

She looked over to her friends for backup. 

Jackie caught on and tried to cover, “No, Crystal has had this insane crush on… on… on Gigi!” Crystal winced at that name. “Yeah, Gigi. Since we were little.” Jackie nodded.

Heidi clearly didn’t know what was happening as evidenced by the confused expression on her face. “Wait, I thought Crystal broke up with her-”

Crystal cut her off, raising her voice to drown out Heidi’s “Yeah, I’ve had this silly crush on this cheerleader. It’s kinda pathetic. Like just cause we grew up together doesn’t mean she would ever look at me like that.” Crystal laughed nervously.

Nicky looked unconvinced, and a little… disappointed. But the expression disappeared a second later. “Well she’s stupid if she doesn’t think you’re cute.”

“Amen,” Aiden called. 

Nicky nodded and turned back to Crystal. “Anyway, enough of that sad stuff, let’s see those paintings you are always talking about.”


End file.
